


Episode 10 - A Better Way

by stgjr



Series: "The Power of a Name" Series 2 - "Time Lord Triumphant" [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Multi-Fandom, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Multiple Crossovers, Multiverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-10-08 22:18:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10397430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stgjr/pseuds/stgjr
Summary: A chance visit to Bajor during the Cardassian Occupation leads our narrator to investigate a question: why *did* the Cardassians withdraw from Bajor?  As you might expect, the answer involves him.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally posted on May 3rd, 2014.

The TARDIS doesn't always take you where you're looking to go but where you need to be. That's one of the rules. Always has been. It had already happened to me, hadn't it?  
  
And yet, sometimes, it still surprised me with where it decided to deposit us.  
  
Here I was, thinking we were stepping out into a brisk, lovely day on Minbar, and instead I'm in the foothills of one of Bajor's mountain regions.  
  
How did I know it was Bajor? Because I recognized the vista. The newly-made grave, and the ragged-clothed figure kneeling beside it, her hair longer than I'd ever known it to be.  
  
"Nerys," I murmured to myself. Behind me Janias and Cami looked out from the entrance.  
  
When she looked up I could see the pain and fury in her eyes. She'd just buried her father, as I knew she would, and she had gone off to fight rather than face watching him die.  
  
I should have been better prepared for something like this, but I wasn't. I said nothing as she stormed up to me and, without a moment's hesitated, punched me right in the jaw. Given my height, that was very impressive. It caused me to reel backward and into the others. " _Why?!_ ," Nerys demanded, grabbing my jacket collar.. "Why didn't you let us go with you?! _Why didn't you save him?! Why did you make me stay and live with this?! WHY?!_ "  
  
I had remained silent to that point, prompting my Companions to do the same, but when she broke down into bitter sobs I hugged her, ignoring the pain in my jaw from her punch. I felt lucky she hadn't broken anything; given the slightly malnourished look on her, I suspected I would have had a broken jaw if she was fit.  
  
"I'm sorry, Nerys," I whispered, feeling a tear in my own eye as I remembered the poor little girl who'd lost her brothers and who had begged me to let her stay in the TARDIS. Even when I thought about how, as second-in-command of Deep Space Nine, she had told me she understood why I left her and that she was glad to fulfill her role… I still felt deep regret and a sense of shame.  
  
"Why won't you do anything for us?", Nerys asked. "You can help us against the Cardassians so much…"  
  
"You'll beat them soon enough," I assured her. "Bajor will be free. If I do anything to interfere in that, it'll change your history, and likely not for the better."  
  
"And how long will it take? How many of us are going to be beaten and tortured and killed by the Cardassians before they run off?" I could sense her fear and heartache. "Will I live to see it?"  
  
"Yes," I answered. "You will. And it won't be far into the future. But it's not something I can force, Nerys. Not without changing history, and that could make things worse."  
  
"I can't see how much worse they can be." Now doubt appeared in her features. "I… I can't believe you, Doctor. The Cardassians are so powerful that we'll never make them leave Bajor. And the Federation won't support us. You say they're going to leave, but why would they?"  
  
It was, I think, a good question. It was never satisfactorily answered to my recollection, although Federation diplomatic pressure may have contributed. But I didn't know.  
  
"They'll have their reasons," I answered. "I promise."  
  
  
  
  
We gave Nerys food and drink for her Resistance cell before she left. I closed the door to the TARDIS as she disappeared from sight and sighed. I wished, more than ever, that I had taken that sweet eight year old girl with me, had gotten her away from this horror.  
  
We stood around quietly. "Well, she looks well enough, I guess," Janias finally said.  
  
I remained silent.  
  
"Doctor, you still did the right thing."  
  
"I left an eight year old girl on a world full of violence, poverty, and terror," I answered. "Even though she begged me for sanctuary. Even though it was _cruel_."  
  
"But you knew her future and how she would become something important."  
  
"No, I believed she would. Because of what I believed, I left a little girl on a world like this. It's wrong, Cami. The timeline be damned, it's _wrong_."  
  
"But you keep saying that the timeline has to be kept," Cami protested. "You can't just go changing it wherever you please."  
  
"No, no I can't," I conceded.  
  
Silence reigned among us for a little longer before Janias posed a question. "Why did they leave Bajor, anyway?"  
  
The question cut into my unhappy mind, demanding a response.  
  
And after thinking on it a moment, I realized the response was, "...I don't have a bit of an idea."  
  
"You don't?"  
  
"No. A lot of things were attributed; Federation diplomatic pressure, the costs of fighting the resistance on a planet they had already strip-mined… but nothing definite." I frowned. I didn't like that I couldn't be certain about this.  
  
"Well, at least we know they're leaving eventually,' Janias pointed out. "And given all the times you've talked to us about bat things eating everyone if someone interferes in history the wrong way…"  
  
"Why did the Cardassians withdraw?", I asked quietly as I worked the TARDIS controls. "It's a big question, isn't it? Great mystery, there. And you know how I like mysteries."  
  
"And how much you like to get into trouble trying to solve them," Camilla laughed.  
  
"Don't forget the people we meet," Janias added. "Like that guy in the bay city who kept wiping things down before he'd touch them."  
  
"Now now, the good Mister Monk has his… eccentricities, but he's a pleasant chap, and sometimes I think his eye for detail would surpass even a Time Lord's." I finished locking in the coordinates. "Well girls, time to visit Cardassia Prime for the first time. I'm afraid it's not much for sight-seeing, however…"  
  
  
  
  
I wasn't exaggerating when I said Cardassia Prime wasn't much for sight-seeing. It was a polluted world with all of the trappings of an authoritarian system bordering on outright totalitarianism. And they didn't like strangers.  
  
It was a good thing we weren't there for sight-seeing.  
  
It took a few tries, but I finally materialized the TARDIS into the right time - about six months before the withdrawal - and what looked to be a small, unoccupied office, probably the private office of a mid-level functionary of the government. I didn't bother to check, as I was too busy disabling the security systems from the doorway to my stealthed-up TARDIS to check. Once I was sure we wouldn't be detected immediately I stepped out, my sonic still in hand, and went to the controls. "Janias, let me know if anyone is coming," I murmured.  
  
My good ex-Padawan friend nodded and stood by the door, reaching out with her senses and keeping a hand on her lightsaber. Camilla stood at the TARDIS to cover us with that mass effect assault rifle that a certain Turian gun enthusiast gifted her.  
  
The computer system built into the desk was easily accessed and, with the screwdriver's help, I was able to override security lockouts to get fairly deep into the system. But not deep enough. Or, rather, without the benefit I needed; the Cardassians kept the information I was looking for on an isolated system accessibly only from the big offices or from Central Command itself. "Oh, this is going to be annoying," I muttered. "Give me a moment. I need to mess with the security systems some more, and then we have another office to visit."  
  
I couldn't outright disable security, that would get noticed. So would meddling. But small alterations and bits could work, Specifically a forced diagnostic cycle and programming it on the fly to ignore our specific life sign readings and then to self-delete the record when the automatic systems triggered a backup reload of detection parameters. Apparently the Cardassians knew about this trick already, blast it, requiring my extra work and limiting my window of opportunity.  
  
"We're only going to have a few minutes, so I'm going to have to move fast," I told the girls. "Stay in the TARDIS."  
  
I shifted the TARDIS out and into another office, that of a Legate - Ghemor, I think, which would make this supremely ironic - and stepped back out. The security systems were of diminished use, but only for the moment, so I went straight to the computer and began loading everything to do with Bajor into my sonic screwdriver's memory and, from there, into the TARDIS computer.  
  
I kept an eye on the security systems as I did so. The forced diagnostic cycle was almost over; after that I only had seconds before the system responded to it by auto-restoring the base defaults, which I hadn't been able to access. From that point on the Cardassians would know someone was in here. And I didn't want them aware of that. It could change too much if there was such a high level security breach.  
  
As a result, I left just as the diagnostic cycle finished. I rushed into the TARDIS as quickly as my legs could carry me and hit the lever to shift us out. I took in a deep breath and verified the shift, into a quiet solar system in another cosmos and ten thousand years in the past (a nice little "thinking" spot I'd once found, conveniently close enough to an old temporal shift to permit the TARDIS some refueling).  
  
"Did you find out anything?", Camilla asked.  
  
"Not yet," I replied. "We've got some work to do."  
  
Indeed, a whole lot of work, it turned out to be. It was only a day later, after sifting through innumerable amounts of reports on logistics and production and security, the death warrants and official sentences for Bajoran prisoners and all sorts of the terrible minutiae of paperwork that a police state used that was so dry that it could be hard to remember it resembled a life about to be broken in the cogs of the Cardassian State, that I found what I was looking for in the guise of the minutes of a joint meeting of Central Command and Obsidian Order leadership with the heads of the rubber stamp Detepa Council. I skimmed quickly, my Time Lord brain allowing me to quickly memorize the data, the names, who said what and what I knew of them. I reached the conclusion and put a hand to my head.  
  
Janias had noticed my feelings and looked up from the files she was reading. "Doctor?" This prompted Camilla to look up as well.  
  
"Those..." I drew in a breath and used a reference in the minutes to look for - and yes, find! - another file I'd copied over. As I read the plan before me I felt my heart grow cold and my stomach churn.  
  
"Doctor, what have you found?', Camilla asked.  
  
I looked up at them, tearing my eyes from that horrible document. "The Cardassians aren't planning to withdraw from Bajor," I announced. "They're planning to _destroy_ Bajor."  
  
  
  
  
  
My Companions read the materials I'd found in turn. "They're just going to bomb it to rubble?"  
  
"Not just bomb. Those are persistent radioactives, Bajor would become uninhabitable outside of the control zones they marked," I pointed out, sitting and thinking. "It's pettyness, pure spite, born out of pride. They can't keep the Bajorans subdued so they're going to poison the well."  
  
"The Sith would approve," Jaina muttered darkly. "So what are we going to do?"  
  
I looked up. "Stop them, of course. Which means we encourage them to see leaving Bajor is a better outcome for them. They're doing this because they think withdrawal will look embarrassing."  
  
"So we... embarrass them into leaving?", Camilla asked.  
  
"Exactly." I stood up. "Which means something other than just blowing things up. We don't want to kill the Cardassian occupation forces, we want to _humiliate_ them. And for that, we're going to need help. Of course, the help needs help first, so we have a stop to make."  
  
"For what, weapons?"  
  
"Something better." I smiled. "Good home cooking."  
  
  
  
  
Guerrila cells aren't very appreciative of visitors.  
  
This obvious fact crossed my mind as I stared into the phaser rifle held by one Shakaar Edon. A number of his fellow guerillas were bringing their weapons to bear as well. I scanned them and noticed that a head of red hair I'd been expecting to see was missing. "Ah, my apologies, didn't mean to startle," I explained, trying not to sound too urgent. "I'm the Doctor, and I've come with food for you."  
  
A flicker of recognition crossed Shakaar's face. "You're the one who liberated Singha? And stopped the Drala Massacre?"  
  
"Well, I can't take much credit for that last one, I just sort of stumbled in... but yes, that's me."  
  
"What's going on?!" A confused voice, very familiar to me, called out from the back of the cave. My companions and I remained still and watched some of the fighters part to let Nerys step up. She got close enough to see me and stopped. "What... what are you doing here now? Come to tell us more about how you can't help?"  
  
"Actually, I came to do the exact opposite," I answered. "First off, a hearty meal for everyone. No meat, I'm afraid, Air Acolytes are strict vegetarians, but Pema's a wonderful..."  
  
"So nice of you to come and feed us, we'll die with full bellies," Nerys growled.  
  
"Nerys." I sighed. I couldn't blame her for how she felt at this point in time. She'd yet to see how things would go and learn why I left her to live the life she'd seen. "I'm here because I've found out what the Cardassians are up to now, and they have to be stopped. I'm here to help you drive them off Bajor."  
  
Nerys went quiet at that. "And how are you going to do that?", Shakaar asked.  
  
"I'm glad you asked that," I replied. "Because tactics are going to shift a little if this is going to work."  
  
"In what way? We're doing everything we can as it is, but..."  
  
"Oh, this is something completely different. You're shooting and bombing and being general nuisances, but you're playing their game to do it. And the Cardassians are very good at brute force and terror and killing in the shadows. That's why we're going to shift tactics to something a little different. We're going to hit them where it hurts. _Their pride_." I smirked. "We're going to use the Occupation to turn the Cardassian Empire into the laughing stock of the Alpha Quadrant."  
  
I could see I had their attention with that. "How?", Shakaar asked.  
  
I smiled. This was going to be the fun part.  
  
  
  
  
The Cardassian supply depots were fairly well guarded against infiltration by the Bajorans; understandable given the situation. But the Cardassians could only use so many troops per installation, and the trade-off of their vigorous perimeter defense was an anemic interior defense.  
  
The TARDIS finished materializing and we emerged; myself, Janias, Nerys, and Nerys' friend Furel. "Do you have the devices?", I asked them.  
  
"All here," was the reply I got from each, their satchels being held up.  
  
"Right. Remember which ones go with which target. Get every computer linkup or power cell crate you can find." I pulled out my sonic screwdriver. "I'm going to be messing with their computers. Hurry, everyone!"  
  
We got to work immediately, with Cami staying behind to monitor the situation from the TARDIS.  
  
I won't bore anyone with the details, as this first infiltration proved surprisingly boring and uneventful. We did what we came to do and we left. Just like that. When we left, we left behind useless equipment and drained or sabotaged power cells, depriving the Cardassians of their war material.  
  
And when we were done, I picked a different depot and we did it all over again.  
  
These kinds of campaigns tend to be simplistic and not very exciting, as the entire point is to avoid fighting. So I won't bore you with every single little raid.  
  
No, the important part was what came afterward.  
  
  
  
  
"So the deliveries went as scheduled?", I asked Shakaar, sitting across from him in he cave his forces called home.  
  
"They did," he answered.  
  
"So now is our chance," Nerys said. "We can launch a major attack and take them by surprise."  
  
"No." That got me looks, so I continued. "That's not how we're taking advantage of this. I've got a better idea."  
  
  
  
  
Labor camps spotted the Bajoran countryside, centered around mines or what little arable land was left that allowed the Cardassians to make the most efficient use of the forced labor.  
  
One of these camps, Rolek, was our first destination. A few resistance cell members slipped into the general population and began agitating for an uprising. The Cardassians detected this, sure enough, and the Gul in charge decided to make an example of the agitators with an impromptu firing squad in the camp's commons area.  
  
I stood, watching, in a raggedy old cloak, as the Gul gleefully pronounced sentence and called out the countdown to the squad. I saw them flinch a little as he ended the countdown with "Fire!".  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
The Gul in question yelled at his men to fire, and they tried again. Nothing. Their rifles were dead. They didn't know that, of course, but my sabotage had been meant to hide itself until this moment of decision.  
  
The call went out to change weapons, and they did, but to no avail. The Gul's face contorted into frustrated rage as he yelled an obscenity and demanded, "Don't you incompetents have any weapons that will work?! I don't know who is responsible for this, but I..."  
  
Ah, my cue.  
  
"Hello there, my good Gul," I called out, stepping out from among the crowd and casting off my cloak. Eyes turned on me and my clearly Human-looking appearance. Janias and Cami took up positions beside me. "I'm the Doctor, and I thought I would share a point with everyone." I held up a finger toward the Gul. "He has maybe 100 armed men in this entire facility, and their guns don't work anymore. There are almost seventy thousand of you here. I would suggest that there's nothing keeping you good people from leaving at your own will."  
  
"We will execute the families of anyone who leaves!", the Gul retorted.  
  
"Assuming you can find them with all of the damage I've done to your database," I pointed out.  
  
I knew that I had made a name for myself due to Singha and the other prior incident, and a name and legend are pretty powerful. Combine that with the clear effectiveness of my actions and, well, I'd done what I'd needed to do; the Bajorans were ready to ignore the blowhard and run for it. Which they did with abandon. Some went to ransack the mess hall, others to collect prisoners who were still in tents, and in general the entire camp was preparing to empty.  
  
"Arrest him!", the Gul ordered, pointing at me.  
  
"You'll have to find me first," I replied, pulling the cloak back over my head and merging with the press of Bajorans rushing for the gate. Word had spread sufficiently that the entire camp was now rushing to leave, and there were only a couple of Cardassians at the gate to hold it closed. With a quick press of a button to my sonic screwdriver, the electronic locking system disengaged and the gate swung wide open.  
  
I slipped through the crowd and back in toward the camp, or rather to the nearby alley between prisoner barracks where the TARDIS waited, invisible. I stepped inside and found my Companions with Nerys, who was using a comm unit I'd set up to speak with the other groups. "Everything going well?"  
  
"Half the labor camps on the planet are having the same thing happen," Janias answered. "It's extraordinary."  
  
"That space station is going to be a problem though," Camilla pointed out. "All they have to do is start transporting troops...."  
  
"That's why we're going there next," I remarked, reaching for the TARDIS controls.  
  
I materialized the TARDIS by reactor control on the station. Janias and Nerys accompanied me this time, the former with her lightsaber and the latter carrying a Bajoran phaser rifle. A sweep of the sonic screwdriver opened reactor control to us, and upon entry we were faced with three Cardassian work crew and a Bajoran technician. Janias lifted her hand and slammed two of them together. My sonic disruptor knocked the third down. The Bajoran looked at us with wide-eyes and scurried into a corner.  
  
Nerys was probably the reason, since she had a vicious look on her face at seeing him. "The only way he would be in here is if he was a collaborator," she said.  
  
"He's not what we're here to deal with," I reminded her, heading to a control station. "Looks like they're already preparing troops. And these rifles aren't among the ones I sabotaged. Hrm, dicey.... ah, here we go. Remote transporter control. This will be useful." I worked the system, watching the operators on Ops trigger the transporters... and promptly beam the troops about six feet above a rather cold lake in Bajor's northern Hemisphere. "Knowing how Cardassians hate the cold, that should be most infuriating. See, Nerys, isn't this..."  
  
I turned in time to see her leveling her phaser at the head of one of the knocked out Cardassians. I reached over and grabbed the phaser just before she fire, sending the brownish phaser beam into the nearest bulkhead. "What are you doing?!", I demanded.  
  
"Getting rid of a Cardassian!", she retorted.  
  
"That's not what we're here to do, Nerys!"  
  
"It's what _they're_ here to do," she retorted, her voice full of rage. "I don't know what kind of war you think you're fighting here, but I've been fighting in it since I was a child, and we're not going to win by just taunting the Cardassians! We have to show them that we can hurt them!"  
  
My eyes met hers, and I didn't let the intensity and hate I saw in Nerys lead me to blink. "No, you have to show them that you're not worth the trouble! Because this, shooting helpless men? That's how _they_ wage war, and the only thing you've gotten fighting them this way is getting them angry enough that they're ready to turn your homeworld into a radioactive cinder! There is a _better way_ , Nerys."  
  
"It's easy for you to believe that. You didn't see everything they did. You haven't _lived_ with the Occupation," Nerys countered. "You haven't seen the atrocities they've done. They _deserve to die_ , and I'm not going to feel one damn bit sorry for killing them no matter what you say, Doctor. You can judge me all you like and it's not going to mean one damn thing!"  
  
I remained silent as she spoke. When she was done I nodded quietly. "You're right. My judgement isn't the one that's important. _Your's_ is. And that's why I'm begging you to take this, the better way. Do it so that in the future you can look in the mirror and judge yourself with no regrets."  
  
We remained focused on each other for several seconds.  
  
"I'm never going to regret killing Cardassians," Nerys insisted, breaking the silence.  
  
"Not right now, you're not. But things change, Nerys. Everything changes."  
  
There was a beep in the air that directed our attention. " _Ops to Reactor Control, someone answer me or I swear you will pay for your incompetence!_ "  
  
"Well well, looks like we got their attention," I murmured. "Now comes the fun part." I went over to a control near a wall panel and used it to check on the status of my little sabotage operations. When that was done I triggered internal communications to give me a direct video link to Ops, and specifically the commander there. A familiar visage of a Cardassian filled my screen. "Good day!", I said cheerily. "Gul Dukat, yes?"  
  
Dukat's eyes narrowed. "And just who are _you_?!"  
  
"Me?" I smiled. "I'm the Doctor. And you're just the man I wanted to talk to. One moment!" I held up the sonic and used it to remotely trigger a nearby panel. The swirling effect of a Cardassian transporter beam surrounded Dukat and made him vanish from the screen.  
  
Nearby a similar effect began, resulting in Dukat's materialization in our midst. He looked around in surprise and anger. "Gul Dukat, it's about time we talked," I said. "You've been having some troubles with your Occupation lately, right?"  
  
"I don't know who you think you are,'Doctor', but I am warning you, you have..."  
  
"...'I have trifled with forces I can't hope to face, I'm going to be killed or destroyed or whatever blah blah'," I finished for him, waving my hand dismissively. "I've heard the speech before, Gul, and by far more frightening things than you. Let's skip to the point, shall we?" I used the sonic again. The station's main power core went down at my command, taking out transporters and weapons and shields, just about everything but life support and local sensors and a few other vital systems. "They call me the Doctor. I'm sure you lot have heard of me by now. I am a Time Lord with enormously advanced technology and science at my beck and call." I smirked. "And I am here to inform you and your superiors, Dukat, that I know of what's being planned for Bajor, and that I'm giving you this one chance to call it off and leave this world, never to return."  
  
Dukat stared at me like I was a madman. Which, well, I was, just not for the reasons he undoubtedly thought. "Do you seriously intend to challenge the entire Cardassian Empire, Doctor?"  
  
"Intend? Oh heavens no." My smirk turned into a wide grin. "I already _have_." With the press of a button I brought up a view of Bajor on the largest monitor in Reactor Control. "You lot moved into Bajor when it was helpless, and you've made yourselves rather too cozy here, like a bunch of bad, rowdy, and entirely uninvited house guests. Well, that ends, and it ends now. Bajor isn't helpless anymore, Gul Dukat. It is _defended_." I did my best to channel Ten when I said that. "And since I'm a sporting chap, I'm going to give you lot one chance to leave, peacefully. You won't get another."  
  
Dukat opened his mouth to speak, but I didn't pay attention. With Janias and Nerys beside me, I took my TARDIS remote in my hand and summoned it. Dukat watched us all disappear within a blue box marked "Police Call Box".  
  
Inside the control room, I grabbed and pulled a lever, shifting us back to Shakaar's HQ planetside. "What did you just do?", Nerys asked, almost breathless.  
  
"Oh, I presented what they call an ultimatum," I answered. "Very important part of diplomacy."  
  
"But Dukat... he's going to...."  
  
"....order a slaughter? When he can't trust his own systems and the occupation troops can't trust their guns? No, for the moment he's going to try to keep things running as usual and save his own arse while waiting for Central Command to get its bombardment fleet armed."  
  
"So we didn't stop them? Your 'better way' didn't work?!"  
  
"Give it time, Nerys." I winked. "I knew full well nothing would stop that fleet from coming. In fact, I'm rather counting on it arriving at Bajor."  
  
"But...."  
  
"Come now, so little faith, Nerys?", I asked. "Everything is going according to plan. And when it's done, they're going to wish they'd never thought of sending that fleet."  
  
  
  
  
Looking back, I was becoming far too showy. That whole bit with Dukat? Entirely unnecessary. Done only for my own enjoyment because, in case you haven't noticed, I'd become quite the arrogant git.  
  
And someone else would pay the price.  
  
We were back in the caves Shakaar's cell used, and the mood was... fairly optimistic. The Air Acolyte cuisine appealed to the Bajorans, even with the lack of meat, and the Cardassians' newfound impotence due to Time Lord sabotage was lifting spirits across the planet. The danger wasn't over, not by a long shot, but everyone could feel good about how we were humiliating the Cardassians.  
  
And then it was all ruined.  
  
Someone monitoring the planetary communications network came running up to where we were eating. "Shakaar, Doctor! The Cardassians are burning the Rakatha Valley!"  
  
"What?", Shakaar asked, as incredulous as I was. I brought up the screwdriver and used it to remotely access a system to give us audio from Cardassian communications.  
  
" _....destroyed, Gul Dukat. Is this enough of a statement for you?_ "  
  
" _No, it is not. Move on to the next village in the valley, Gul Ukrell. Take no prisoners._ "  
  
" _Yes Gul._ "  
  
"I thought we hit every depot?", Janias asked, bewildered.  
  
I had thought so too... and then I put two and two together. "Oh, that crafty bugger.... that crafty, crazy bugger."  
  
"What?"  
  
"The shuttles," I replied to Cami. "Dukat used the shuttles' transporters to ship down enough guns for an attack. He must have his technicians constantly working on them to keep the transporters functional. Shuttle transporters aren't meant to do much, after all."  
  
"So we need to catch them by surprise," Shakaar said. "We get them into a trap and start shooting."  
  
"Good idea. The trap, I mean. The shooting can come at the last resort."  
  
Nerys snorted. "Yes, we wouldn't want to harm those Cardassians busy burning our villages and killing our people."  
  
"Oh, we're going to harm them," I promised. "And in a way that will really hurt. Cami, go get those field generators. We've got to do this quickly and quietly..."  
  
  
  
  
Rakatha was not the most hospitable of valleys even before the Cardassians came. The soil was coarse and meager and the weather nasty; the people living here had little.  
  
And the Cardassians had come to take even that.  
  
I stood alone in the valley, waiting as Bajorans fled around me, not looking back at the invisible TARDIS or the field emitters we'd hidden around us. Above me, in the crevices and rocks of the foothills, Shakaar's cell waited patiently, weapons drawn, ready to attack if it came to that. And perhaps not even then. Their confidence in me was notably undermined by my failure to anticipate Dukat's ingenuity.  
  
I couldn't blame them.  
  
Cardassians marched before me, a Gul coming up to the lead. I suppose that was one mark in the bastard's favor; he was committing butchery, but he was in the forefront along with his men instead of leading from behind. Clearly he wasn't a coward.  
  
I was going to change that.  
  
"Gul Ukrell!", I called out, waving a white flag above my head. And then I waited to see if I was going to have to dive for cover.  
  
I almost did, but Ukrell ordered his men to lower their weapons. They continued on with him until they were about fifteen feet from me, at which point they stopped. Weapons came up, not at full readiness but to show me I would be shot the moment their commander allowed it. "A flag of surrender?", Ukrell asked. "And you would be the Doctor, yes?"  
  
"A flag of truce, actually, for negotiation. The association with surrender comes purely from the occasional outcomes." I lowered the makeshift flag, and pressed a button along the handle's surface as I did. "I've come to offer you a chance to save the lives of your soldiers, Gul Ukrell."  
  
The Cardassian smirked. "Really? What would kill them? You, Doctor?"  
  
"Oh, plenty of nasty things could happen in these wilds. Predator animals, for one thing. Ambushes. Tripping and stubbing your toe. I could go on. But we, and when I say 'we' I mean you, don't have time for that."  
  
Ukrell laughed at me. "I have almost a thousand men behind me. What do you have?"  
  
"Well, certainly not a thousand men," I conceded. "Just the resources and knowledge of a Time Lord, about fifty Bajoran resistance fighters, one very passionate young former Jedi aching to slice you to bits, her girlfriend and her mass effect assault rifle... oh, and...." I held up my sonic away from the Cardassians and triggered it, bringing up an energy field from the emitters we had placed around the valley. "...one very effective dampening field tuned to Cardassian phasers."  
  
Ukrell stared at me while his men started to check their guns. More and more did so and found the same result; their guns were showing an error warning stating that they could not fire.  
  
For the moment, I held the upper hand. But only for the moment; the field wouldn't last long.  
  
Ukrell looked around at his men and go the confirmations that their weapons were now useless. He looked back at me and, likely, above me to the ridge line, where Bajorans appeared with rifles and guns already pointing down.  
  
"Fifty of them, a thousand of you. Twenty shots from each and the odds will be a lot more even, accounting for misses or multiple shots on the same man. And now you can't shoot back."  
  
Ukrell pulled out a combat knife. "We could kill you first," he pointed out.  
  
"Certainly you could, but your men would still die," I answered. "So the question is, Gul Ukrell... do you care about your men?"  
  
We met eye to eye, our lives in his hands. Odds were I'd regenerate, of course... well, unless the field failed and the entire plan was ruined and then I'd probably get vaporized. But I wasn't thinking about that, oh no. My mind was on the destroyed villages, the innocent people hurt because of the Cardassians... and because of me.  
  
And that made me angry. It made me so angry I was ready to shout for Shakaar and his people to shoot anyway, damn what happened to me, to make sure these killers got what they deserved. But I channeled my anger in another direction.  
  
"If you care about your men, Gul Ukrell, you will order them to drop their guns and run away," I said. "And I do mean run away. I want to hear you say it, I want to hear _all_ of you screaming ' _RUN AWAY!_ ' at the top of your lungs! I want you fleeing in panic and terror like the Bajorans you've been butchering, because it's the least you deserve for the horrors you've committed. And when word of this gets back to your Central Command and you are disgraced, when little children on Cardassia come up and tease you as the Gul who screamed 'Run away!', I want you to tell them _why_."  
  
My voice was starting to shake with fury by that point. Fury at myself and fury at Ukrell and his men. I brought a hand up, ready to give the signal to open fire. "Ten seconds, Gul," I said. After two seconds I pulled my thumb in. After another two my pinky curled inward. "Five seconds," I warned.  
  
Ukrell was shuddering with shame and fear and anger by this point, but as our eyes made contact I knew I'd won. He had looked over the situation and known that he and his men would be doomed if they didn't get out of the trap, no matter how undignified their exit would be. "Run away," he rasped to his men.  
  
I brought my ring finger in. "I didn't hear you. Three seconds!"  
  
"Run away!"  
  
My middle finger curled inside my hand, now more like a fist. "All of you, one second!"  
  
" _Run away!_ ", Ukrell shouted, even louder than before, and this time his men joined in. Cardassian rifles began to fall into the dirt as soldiers turned and ran. The ones behind them saw this motion, heard the growing cry, and began to do the same. Soon "Run away!" was echoing down the canyon, joined by the tromping of boots as the Cardassians fled in the opposite direction and the growing laughter of the Bajorans watching from the high ground.  
  
Cami emerged from the invisible TARDIS with her M7 Lancer in her arms. Nerys stepped out next, holding her phaser rifle and looking at me with some surprise. There was even more surprise on the faces of the Bajoran refugees we'd packed inside. "I didn't think you'd...." For the first time since I'd come to this timeframe, I heard real wonder in Nerys' voice. "You actually... made them yell that. You made a thousand Cardassians run away screaming."  
  
"Well, more accurately, the dampening field and the guns above them made them do that," I pointed out. "I'm just the clever bugger who thought it up." I looked beyond her to see Janias looking at me from within the TARDIS. I could see concern on her face. I knew what it meant.  
  
"The important thing is that we stopped them," Camilla said. "Now we just have to wait on that fleet."  
  
"Yes." Even as I said that, I was already thinking about how I had planned to approach it... and how I _should_ approach it.  
  
  
  
  
We had returned to one of the most intact villages to help the refugees get settled back in and, it must be said, to oversee the disposition of the dead. I spent my time using the healing equipment I had to treat the wounds of hundreds of Bajorans. They behaved like they were being called before a wrathful deity and left as true believers, which was not a behavior I wanted to instill.  
  
When it was over I looked out at the ruins and thought I could hear, in the winds, the accusing voices of the slain. This was my fault. I had underestimated Dukat. I had been too arrogant, too uppity, too _showy_.  
  
The Doctor must always be a showman, but it's a poor showman who doesn't know how to tailor his act to the audience. And the Cardassians didn't humiliate easy or well.  
  
"I need a new plan," I murmured to myself. "And I need it now."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our narrator finds a better way to persuade the Cardassians to leave Bajor while pondering the future of Janias and Camilla.

I spent the next day in the TARDIS, pondering things, examining the situation and trying to find a way around it that didn't involve massive destruction. I poured over the data I got from the Cardassian systems to get an idea of who I was dealing with. Their decision to destroy Bajor was explained, but on closer examinations of other meetings I could see that, in context, it was not a unanimous decision. It was a decision driven by hardliners who didn't want to just leave now that they'd stripped the system bare. To them, the Bajorans had defied Cardassia and had to be punished, brutally.  
  
But there were other figures. More... pragmatic men, or idealistic, who thought such slaughter would be wasteful and would backfire on the Cardassian people. They were just a few votes shy of taking charge of Bajor policy. If a few fence-sitters could be tilted...  
  
An idea formed in my head, an alternative to just trying to humiliate the Cardassians into leaving. There was, ha, a better way to do it.  
  
Simply put, I would make the Cardassians decide to leave on their own.  
  
Of course, I had to talk to someone first. Someone with insights into the Cardassian authorities, and who might have formed his own views on the plans against the Bajorans.  
  
  
  
  
I used every stealth measure when I shifted the TARDIS, and the girls and I stayed inside and quiet as we watched what was going on with external sensors. It was only when we could be sure of privacy that I activated a further measure to hide my life signs from the station's sensors and stepped out of the TARDIS.  
  
I scanned through the shop and to a desk, occupied, with the shop's entrepreneur sitting and reading over a PADD. He didn't look up, but he did clearly detect my arrival. "You're the Doctor, I imagine?"  
  
"I am."  
  
"Well, I certainly hope you came to shop, I'm afraid blue is an unfavorable color at this time of year, and I can do you far better." Garak set the PADD down and smiled at me. "So, Doctor, I imagine you have disabled internal security so we can talk in privacy?"  
  
"To some extent, yes."  
  
"Then allow me to add to your efforts." He pressed a button on his controls. "One can never be too careful with privacy, and I regard the bond of trust between a tailor and his customers to be most important."  
  
"I imagine so."  
  
"Now, as much as I think you could use a better vest, I'm certain you're not here to talk about your suit?"  
  
"As you know, I have another matter in hand," I answered. "This... regrettable problem of Cardassia's solution to the issue of Bajor."  
  
"Oh my, yes." There was something in Garak's reaction that told me he was not favorable to the "bomb them to radioactive rubble" solution.  
  
"And since your customers trust you so well, Mister Garak, I'm imagining they have told you something of the shape of that solution?"  
  
"Yes, they are rather chatty about it," Garak said. "I think it's because of my charming manner. It's second nature."  
  
"That it is. My issue is that I cannot permit that solution to come about. I favor a different solution, that is, the benefit of _distance_ and preservation of good will and resources."  
  
"I admit I have my own misgivings about the plan, though I would miss my fellow Cardassians," Garak replied. "Unfortunately, my people can be rather obstinate, Doctor. You have made them look like fools and oafs, yes, but that will only make them more dedicated to the fulfillment of their solution to this Bajoran Problem. I'm afraid you've showed a critical lack of insight into the nature of the Cardassian mind."  
  
"So I've noticed." I put my hands together. "I think I have a better insight now, won by that failure. I believe it better to convince your government to change back to the withdrawal plan. But a few votes will need to be swayed."  
  
"Ah, yes. It can be hard if you don't have the right information." Garak let out a sigh worthy of a stage actor. "I do apologize, Doctor, but while I do have some information from people back home, information is not like wine; it grows stale with age."  
  
"Indeed." I reached into my pocket and pulled out an isolinear rod with some juicy bits of data on it. "Perhaps if the product was more fresh?"  
  
Garak took the rod and read the contents.  
  
And then we were silent for several minutes as he read intently.  
  
"Well well," Garak finally said. "Some rather good pieces of information here, Doctor. If they knew you had knowledge of these things, half the Central Command would be hiding under their beds and the other half would be dedicated to your destruction at any cost."  
  
"I imagined so. This information is very potent. It has to be handled with delicate care."  
  
"I think I can give you a few suggestions, Doctor, on worthy recipients of these facts that would sway the plans of the Central Command," Garak answered. "It will be just a moment."  
  
  
  
  
My next stop was Cardassia Prime and the residence of one of the legates who opposed the radical solution: Tekeny Ghemor. A dissident in truth, but he was good at hiding his opposition to the Cardassian junta. Given his later connection to Nerys, there was something poetic about coming to him for this.  
  
I was waiting for him when he entered the room. "Hello Legate. Please, no need for phasers, I'm here to offer you a deal."  
  
"I've heard of you," Ghemor said. "They call you 'the Doctor', an unknown agent helping the Bajorans. You look Human, is this the Federation's doing then?"  
  
"Oh, I have no affiliation with them. They take exception to my nature," I replied. I reached into my pocket and set a data rod on the nearby mantle. "This is some information you might find useful if you want to keep Cardassia from going down in infamy amongst the powers of the Alpha Quadrant."  
  
My choice of words was all he needed to hear; he'd said similar in the meetings on Bajor's fate. "I see. The information will have to be good to sway the fence-sitters. The powers that favor the bombardment are very powerful men, not easily crossed."  
  
"I suspect they will be more humble as this information makes its way through the Central Command," I answered. "And now, Legate, I must be going. I find Cardassia... rather unlikeable, I'm sorry to say." I turned to step into the TARDIS.  
  
"Given your power, you could do this violently," Ghemor pointed out. "You've already shown a talent for sabotage. Assassination isn't far from that. But you don't seem to want to kill. Why is that?"  
  
I stopped and remained silent for a moment. Turning back, I said, "Because then I couldn't be the Doctor. I can't cause death like that, not when there's a better alternative. Even trying to humiliate your people was the wrong approach, and I see that now."  
  
"I see. Well, I have some reading to do. We haven't got long before the fleet is finished with the preparations for Bajor, I'll need every moment I can get."  
  
"Your people are counting on you, Legate," I said. I let my expression harden. "Because this is me trying to be nice. If I have to, I'll go the other route again, anything to keep Bajor safe. It's under my protection now, and I want Cardassia out. You've done enough harm to those people."  
  
"You may be surprised how many of us agree with that sentiment, Doctor." There was a hint of fatigue, perhaps even shame in Ghemor's voice.  
  
"It's why I think you deserve this chance to handle it yourselves," I pointed out. "My best wishes to you. I hope you see your daughter again one day."  
  
I didn't stay to see his reaction.  
  
  
  
  
We had nothing left to do but sit and wait, so to speak, and allow the wheels of intrigue to turn on Cardassia. Granted, we didn't stay idle. I had other sources for food and medicine besides Pema's cooking, and there were Bajorans in need of both.  
  
During a rest period I sat alone in the library, looking into space, going through my head and trying to sort my thoughts. I heard a noise from the doorway and looked back to see Janias come in. "Ah, hello Jan. Come to scold me?"  
  
"You seem to be doing a pretty good job of that yourself," she replied, working her way to a seat. "Hey, you made it right in the end, okay?"  
  
"Tell that to the dead." As I said that I felt a different guilt begin to creep into me, and the vision of two hourglasses with Aurabesh writing. "What do you want to do, Janias?"  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"You and Cami? What do you have planned for the future?"  
  
She sat here for a moment, not speaking further. When she did, it was to shrug and say, "Well, we haven't really talked about it. You don't give us a lot of time to think about things, especially recently."  
  
"So no desire to find a nice home somewhere and spend your days with Cami?"  
  
"Well.... I suppose we've thought of what it would be like to have a nice home to ourselves in some valley on a Core world. But those are just fantasies we sometimes have. We'd never abandon you."  
  
I nodded at that. "I understand. We've been through so much, it's just...."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Janias.... I'm going to live for at least a thousand years, without counting any regenerations I have left. You and Cami have such short lives by comparison, it would be wrong of me to keep you from enjoying the time you do have."  
  
"You're not keeping us from anything, Doctor. We _want_ to be here, with you, traveling in the TARDIS."  
  
I nodded at that, having expected the answer. "Alright. But do me a favor, Jan?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"If that ever changes, if you and Cami ever feel like it's time for you to move on and get a normal life together, tell me. Don't hide it just because you feel the need to keep me company. I'm worried about your welfare, not mine. If you feel like you're ready to settle down, let me know."  
  
She looked at me for a moment before nodding. "Okay Doctor, we will."  
  
  
  
  
We were working with Shakaar's cell, handing out food, when the news came. The young man monitoring the communications system rushed around, telling everyone that the Cardassians had announced their plans to withdraw over the course of the next half-year. I could see the disbelief on everyone's faces at this development. The odds against them had been so bad for so long that they couldn't quite believe that the day was coming when the Cardassians would be gone. And when they realized that it was true, that they had won, they would finally entertain every dream they'd ever dared to have over these long, hard years. Here was the seed of Bajor's challenge; dealing with the dashed dreams of every fighter who believed getting rid of the Cardassians would mean instant paradise.  
  
I knew I was not wise enough to fix that problem for them.  
  
There were no cheers or celebrations. I suspected those would come later, when the Cardassians were actually gone, when it was clearly not a trick. They'd gone through too much, had too many dashed hopes, to do otherwise.  
  
My reaction was to return to the TARDIS and sit in the control room, deep in thought.  
  
I'd done it. I'd saved Bajor. But it had been a close thing. My plans had been entirely wrong from the start, and only a last minute change had allowed me to snatch victory from the jaws of, at best, stalemate.  
  
I didn't see the door to the TARDIS open, and didn't know who had come to speak with me until Nerys sat down beside me. "The Cardassians are really pulling out?"  
  
"Yes," I replied. "I was able to tilt the balance in their government toward withdrawal. It won't be easy, but it'll keep your world intact."  
  
Nerys nodded in silent reply, clearly lost in thoughts. When she finally spoke again her voice lowered. "Is this why you didn't let us stay with you? Because you knew I'd play a part in helping you save Bajor?"  
  
"No," I answered. "The best is still to come for you."  
  
"Is it?" Nerys looked at me. "How? What's left for me? I don't know how to do anything but fight, and that will be over now."  
  
"Just because the Cardassians are leaving doesn't mean Bajor won't need protectors, Nerys," I pointed out. "And you'll be one of the best."  
  
"How? Just... please tell me how."  
  
"I can't tell you everything, Nerys. That knowledge would cause you to make different decisions. It would change your fate." I saw her look and sighed. "All I can say is... you will serve Bajor proudly at the most important post you will ever have. You'll make new comrades and find new friends and become something... wonderful."  
  
"And what about the Cardassians?", she asked. "They did all of this to us and they're just walking away. Do they ever get punished?"  
  
I smiled thinly. "In time, Nerys, the Cardassians will be handled. It's not something you should worry about. You're going to have a free homeworld soon, you should enjoy that. Let the future tend to itself."  
  
She nodded at me again. But I could see the anger broiling in her eyes. "I hope you're right. Because right now I feel like the Cardassians are getting away with everything they did to us."  
  
"They'll come to learn the errors of their conduct."  
  
There was nothing more for her to say. As she returned to the TARDIS door I called out to her. On getting her attention, I said, "Remember that there's a better way than just lashing out. Hatred and anger will only cause you grief in the long run, Nerys. Don't let it consume you."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind," she answered. Nothing more was said as she left the TARDIS.  
  
I knew from the tone of her voice that she wasn't convinced, that she was still angry and bitter and vengeful. She would take that feeling with her to _Deep Space Nine_ , and there... there her life would begin to change. She would get to know Odo and Chief O'Brien and Dax, she would find the Emissary of the Prophets in her superior officer, and she would meet Aamin Marritza and find that not all Cardassians were evil. She would fall in love with Bareil Antos and get her heart broken by his death.  
  
And she had to do this by herself, without forewarning from me, to become the person that I would eventually meet again.  
  
When I thought those things, it was about my past meetings with her future self, on the station and Bajor and getting her help with the Air Nomad situation, hearing her laugh as Sven the reindeer ran me over in Arendelle and getting blown around by Tenzin's children while trying to skate in Elsa's iced over courtyard.... all the memories of her I had at the moment.  
  
I had no idea that the most important thing to come from our meeting at this timeframe lay ahead in my future. Kira Nerys had yet to play her most important part in my story. It is a part that I shall get to eventually.  
  
Only after I had my hearts broken, of course, by what lay in store for me and my Companions.  
  
  



End file.
